Week 10 Recap: The Rams and Seahawks are on a collision course

0:28Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. caller and Jonathan Taylor grabbing our attention in week 10. Little WTF with the Buffalo Bills getting demolished by the Dolphins, which I still don't know what to make of that. The Jags blow a massive lead in the fourth quarter against the Texans. And then the Carolina Panthers, who were favored by five and a half points, lay an egg against the New Orleans Saints. Chat about a couple of things that made us feel romantic about football in week 10, including me being, I don't know, more excited about the Bears quarterback on a recorded on a microphone than I've ever been since I started doing this.

1:02And so if you want to check that out, that comes a little bit later in the show. And then we talked about something we learned in week 10, which is that there is a reason that people get so invested in these young quarterbacks, because as Drake May has shown us, they can change everything for their respective franchises. A lot to dig into. Let's get to it with me, Dave Hellman and Derek Klassen.

1:29An eventful week 10 on the NFL slate. Fun game in Berlin this morning. And the game happened in Berlin. I can never keep track where the European games are happening. Big win for the Colts. We'll shout about that a little bit later. A sleepy afternoon slate, but not one. One with implications. One that I think there's a lot to say and we'll dig into that. And then the morning slate today was perfect because there were seven games. There were three games that I think rose a little bit above the rest of them. So we had three games each on their own TV with the four box on the fourth one. And so there was like a cleanliness to the way that today went as like a watching experience, even if the afternoon slate was pretty boring.

2:08The three did not rise above. One was just the Bears game. It rose above in my mind, in my own personal experience. It had a dramatic finish. It did. It was not something you can take for granted. It was just a nice, pristine way to watch the games. unfortunately the afternoon slate that had a couple games you know we were excited about whether it was the Rams 49ers game you know we wanted to see what would happen with this version of the Cardinals after beating the Cowboys last week things got out of hand very very quickly in all three of the games that were happening in that slate the fact that almost all of them had similar scores like the fact that the Washington game the fact that the Lions game and the Seahawks game both ended 44 to 22 and then the Rams game ended 42 to 26 it was an evenness to everything that was happening about halfway through that afternoon slate my mind immediately went to next week because we were watching the Rams and the Seahawks both absolutely destroy the teams that they're playing and it was my prevailing thought as I'm watching those games is like all right let's make this a fair fight like let's get these two teams on the field together and next week next Sunday, we finally get that.

3:19We get the two teams that arguably look like the best teams in the NFL right now squaring off against better opponents than the ones they played against today. And like that is truly the best way to frame it is that these might be the two best teams in the NFL. You posted earlier when we were watching these games, when they started to get out of hand, you were like, are these going to be the two best teams in football? In my mind immediately went, well, if I had to pick one, it's probably the Rams for me. Like I'm kind of there with this team on the way that they're playing on both sides of the ball is incredible.

3:43Like it's just, we talked about it earlier on the show or on the preview show, like they're a Petri dish for cool football. And also they have some of the best players that are all hall of famers. But then I was trying to think like, do I really think the Seahawks are the second best team? And I couldn't find another one that I would knock off for them. Like maybe the Lions at their best, like maybe one or two others, but like they're in the conversation. I think if you're arguing, you're just doing it based on vibes. And like what I mean by that is just how you feel about Patrick Mahomes and record be damned.

4:09The chiefs are like in that conversation, no matter what, But in terms of how they've played, what they've done, it's hard to go against it. And we were talking about that. We had a lot of we were able to do a lot of things today because we didn't really have to hang on every single snap. I don't know that I've ever been this well prepared for a recap show. By like midway through the second quarter, I was like, all right, let's check in on some early games that I didn't all the way see. but these are two teams, the Rams and Seahawks, two teams where even in their losses, it's been by the skin of their teeth.

4:45To me, it's about the high and the low. Can you blow an NFL team out? Yes. Can you just blow them off the field? Unequivocally. Yes, we just watched it happen today. And then at your worst, what have you looked like this year? And we were talking about this again in our extended conversations this afternoon. If you stack up the losses for the Rams and the Seahawks, these are two of the only teams in the NFL that have not gotten convincingly beat at any point this year, right? So the Rams two losses, they get the ball punched out at the one yard line in that weird Thursday night loss to the 49ers.

5:15It's a coin flip game they easily could have won. They have a field goal blocked, the game winning field goal blocked and returned for a touchdown in the loss to the Eagles. And then the Seahawks have the Tonjes play at the end of week one, and then they lose a back and forth whoever had the ball last game against the Bucs. And so they're capable of destroying lesser opponents, and their worst has not been very bad. I think you can make an argument these are the only two teams that have not convincingly lost a football game in the NFL this year. Their total margin of defeat between the two of them, four losses, is 17 points.

5:48And six of that is the Jordan Davis return that was amazing but totally unnecessary. So literally by the skin of your teeth. Yeah, I mean, when you're talking about losses that aren't convincing or just not having a bad day at the office, these guys are as good as it gets, really. Two blowout wins. We're not talking much about what actually happened in the games today because I don't know if anything that notable happened that we didn't already know coming into the games. That's kind of how I'm seeing these two performances from the Rams and the Seahawks collectively today. The Seahawks specifically, right?

6:22Like that game just got off kilter so quickly. Same defensive touchdown twice in the first 20 minutes of the game. They had run 17 offensive snaps when it became 28 to nothing. And then it took them 23 offensive snaps to get to 35 nothing. Sam Darnold threw 12 passes in this game. He threw two passes in the second half. That's what we were dealing with. It was a ridiculous game. The fact that it is truly, when you say the same defensive play that scored twice, it was Tyrese Knight knocking the ball out of Jacoby Brissett's hand and him like being a quarter of an inch away from like that counting as forward passes, probably in both cases.

6:58And then DeMarcus Lawrence picks it up and brings it back. And like, they just, the way that this defense can play, the way that that offense can play when they're in a machine. I mean, you were even saying it like, JSN scored a touchdown like what felt like three real life minutes into this game. I don't even know if that was it. It was faster than that. We weren't done with Jags Texans. We weren't like settled in our seats. Yeah, when the Seahawks went up in this game, we weren't done with the foolishness in Houston. I think my biggest takeaway from this game on the Seahawks side of it is that the lesser defenders on this team are the guys that maybe are a little bit more of unknowns.

7:32I think a lot of the role players had moments in this game. Obviously, Tyrese Knight is stepping in for Ernest Jones. I think using Tyrese Knight more as a blitzer than you would with Ernest Jones because at this point in his career, he's better moving forward than backward. Makes sense. He has two game-swinging sacks. Drake Thomas had a ridiculous play in this game. The other off-ball linebacker for the Seahawks, he comes in like a missile on a TFL at one point in the first half. Nick Emanwari, that to me might be the biggest one, where this is a guy that has been central to your plans and the way that you want to construct your defense.

8:06And, you know, he's a rookie. Even in this game, there were a couple moments where he had some issues with guys like Trey McBride, but he had like four pass breakups in this game and again looked pretty darn good in coverage. and even a guy like Nehemiah Pritchett. Like there were guys that had, they're again, like down the list role-playing DBs that had like a PBU or two in this game. And so I think it just speaks to like how complete of a team this can feel like on defense for Seattle, top to bottom in any given week. And even like last week, last week, Tai Okada had the really impressive interception, but this week he exploded somebody over the middle.

8:40I forget who it was, but they were trying to run a deep route over the middle and he just blew them up. But Edmund Wari, there was one play in particular, Obviously, he was really good in pass coverage in this game. I think when he's just like playing one-on-one, he's a very good coverage player, like just length, movement skills. He's really good. But they, I think the first play of the second quarter fired him off the right edge. And Arizona is trying to do this pull protection, pull the guard, get the back out there. And he's supposed to just how quickly Emanwari closes. And then when Jacoby Reset tries to slide up, him just being so long to just reach out, grab him and pull him down.

9:10It's like, that's why you draft athletes like that to play that position. Seattle has three of the 10 highest single game pressure totals in the league this year. Three of the 10? 25 against Jacksonville, 23 today, 23 against San Francisco in week one. Nobody else has more than two. I am very excited about watching them play against the Rams offense because the Rams offense had that version. Whatever Seattle's defense, the version of the game was just like, ah, this is what they do. At their best, they can absolutely annihilate somebody. That's what I felt about the Rams offense today. Rams offense had a 59.7 % offensive success rate per true media today is the seventh highest mark of any team in any single game this season the Niners actually had a higher success rate in the game today but they were down 21 to nothing there was one point where Matt Jones was like 20 of 24 I was like oh my god that's a conversation to be had when we preview the Seahawks game like alright the Rams defense has looked very good against lesser opponents what do they look like against the Seahawks offense that has been the most efficient passing game in the NFL for a huge chunk of the year that's a conversation for next Thursday on the other side of the ball the Rams offense continues just kind of be what you want it to be like there are so many plays in this game where it's like I love watching this like the dagger completion to put to Devontae Adams on one of the first couple drives there was a deep out that Stafford hit to Puka that's like all right these two guys in this offense this is a perfect expression of what they're giving you they had a screen to Xavier Smith out of 13 personnel at one point in this game it's just all the layers that we've seen from the Rams offense combined with Matthew Stafford just like making it rain out there.

10:45Like watching him play right now and the way that he is like driving the ball to all levels of the field, the little like sidearm flip he had on the right side in this game. He is playing as well as I think I've seen him play as the Rams quarterback, which is kind of wild considering the heights that he has reached plus all the questions we had coming into the season. And so the fact that that's the formula on the Rams offensive side of the ball combined with what the Seahawks defense looks like, I could not be more excited for what next week is going to be. It's funny because, I mean, Stafford's been the man for most of the time that he's been in LA, like especially when the Rams have a healthy offensive line.

11:23The way that the counting stats are totaling up here, because like, you know, like they love to run the ball. They give Kyron Williams healthy opportunities. Like Matthew Stafford's stat line doesn't always mirror the way that he's playing. It does right now. He's thrown like 14 touchdowns since week six, I think. He has 25 touchdown passes this year. 25 on the year. He hasn't thrown a pick since the Philly loss. That was all the way back in week three. I think like, you know, all week leading up to a game like this, you hear people saying like, nobody's talking about Matthew Stafford's MVP candidacy.

11:58And then you do a game like this in the late window. And even if people aren't paying close attention because it's a laugher of a game, I mean, the box score is inarguable. It absolutely measures up to the eye test. To me, it's just like, this is the final form in the sense of like, when they were doing it in 2021, the run game sucked. It was a shotgun offense that like they were just, Sean McVay was like, I need the big boy gunslinger quarterback. And they brought in Matthew Stafford to do that. And it was an incomplete offense at times, but they just kind of got hot and they were obviously really good when they needed to be.

12:29This feels more like he can still do all of that, but they can get under center. They can go 13 personnel, run the ball in the NE2. They can throw some funky screens to role players. They just, their ability to blend some of the under center, we're going to get heavy, we're going to run the ball, which is what I think McVay wants to be at his core, really, with Stafford being the gunslinger that he is. And then on top of what you're saying, having Puka be what he is, Devontae Adams bringing back the backside cutters in the offense. And the red zone stuff with Devontae Adams. That was another, like, what are the final layers of all this?

13:00It's worse now. I think that's a great way to frame it. This really does feel like we've kind of reached the zenith of like what the Rams want to be offensively worth. They're checking every single box that even at other times, like no matter, you can bring it all the way back. Let's bring it all the way back to like 2018 when they were able to run the ball at will and the screen game was really dynamic. The drop back game wasn't what it can be now because Jared Goff was not at that level back then. And so they really are able to check off every single box offensively right now in a way that they never have been for the entirety of the McVay era, even when they were winning the Super Bowl, which is wild to say.

13:35Did you hear the stat I gave Derek right before we came in here? No. Weeks one through six, and we've been joking about it all season. Like, they've just been peppering Devontae in the red zone. And it hasn't been working that well. Weeks one through six, Stafford was two of 13 targeting Devontae Adams in the red zone. Two touchdowns, but two of 13. Over the last month, seven of nine in the red zone with six of those going for touchdowns. You just do it enough, eventually it works. The two Hall of Famers figure it out. It's a happy learned how to putt sort of moment like the Rams in their red zone was.

14:06Or their former red zone was. Last thing I wanted to hit before we move on from these two games. I think it's time to have a conversation. The Seattle Seahawks are arguably the best team in the NFL, full stop. They're not at the table right now. That needs to change. Yeah. Like, even if we think the 49ers are a likely playoff team, and if you get in the dance, anything can happen, all that kind of stuff. Fred Warner and Joey Bosa or Nick Bosa are not walking through that door. The trade deadline is over. Even if the Niners are a good story, even if Kyle Shanahan is going to be on the shortlist for coach of the year, all that stuff.

14:40We'll do midseason awards later this week. The Seahawks need to be at the table. Before we play this game next week with the Seahawks and the Rams, the Seahawks need to be at the table. Derek's here, but you're talking to me. Like you're directing all of this vitriol at me. And that's fine. And you know what? I'm not going to push back because I will just say, the Niners schedule does not really get hard from here on out. He's still trying to hang on. I know. Having like the Niners have plenty of opportunity to keep winning games. I just want you to know. But watching them play a team like the Rams, it's easy to just accept like the ceiling has been has been lowered in our like definitively like and it's not coming back, right?

15:24Like Warner's not coming back. Bosa's not coming back. We were joking during the game Like, what is Robert Saleh even supposed to say in a situation like this? Where it's just like, look, just don't loaf. Don't be embarrassing on tape and we'll just get through this together. To that point, there was one play. This was my favorite play in the game. The Rams went 13 personnel and had all three tight ends to the left-hand side. And San Francisco came out in base and they had Bryce Huff as the defensive end to the tight end side. And that's just like, what do we all think is going to happen here?

15:55and exactly what you thought was going to happen was going to happen here. And so I also think, too, like the table framing is good because obviously we have 10 teams, 14 teams get in. There's realistically four teams who get in who just don't have it. And like, I do think the Niners will get in, but realistically probably just happens. I can't imagine even in like, you know, Purdy's on the way back and maybe one, yeah, same thing with Ayuk, like maybe one day he'll play football again. But even if all that happens, I don't see the path to three or four playoff wins in a row for San Francisco so I'm not that word he can play like base defensive end I'm not sure that's gonna be the difference maker for the Niners and it's it's not as if like we're just doing this because the Niners look that hopeless on one side of the ball like the Seahawks might be the best team in football so I've got I've got no issue with this and if I had reluctance before it it has nothing to do with what the Seahawks have put out there.

16:49It's just, again, you can't go back on some of this stuff. So I think it's okay to get enough of a sample size. And I feel like we have it now to say, okay, Niners, sorry. You're a lot less flippant than us, which is probably good. Somebody's got to ride this stuff out, man. But here we are. We're heading into week 11. And again, if some of these guys coming back from injury on the Niners roster were on the defensive side of the ball, I might be fighting this. but that's not happening. And the Seahawks, they definitely deserve it. So the Seahawks are now at the table. It is 10 teams. Beller, when are we cutting it down?

17:28We are going to do that in a week and a half. Week and a half. Yeah, like November 19th. We're going to cut it down from 10 to 8. Cut it down from 10 to 8 because we need real stakes in this. Like, we can't just have it be 10 teams the entire year. He's already in pain from what that cutting it down to 8 conversation is going to look like. But that is coming. I'm ready to kick people out of the door. So the midweek shows, we have our mid-season awards this week, and then we will be cutting the table from 10 teams to eight teams. We're trying to make the most of Derek being here, and we're going to make him do 10 podcasts a week.

17:55I just don't want to log into the Discord when a team that we've kicked off the table wins like a third game in a row in December, and people are in the chat just like, bring me Dave's head. I need to talk to him about this team. The fact that the Ravens are still at the table, you won that one. You did. I'll take you. I'll take you. Pretty darn good. Well, it sounds like in a week and a half, I'm going to have to fight about it again. Well, maybe not. So speaking of the AFC North, we are not going to hit the Sunday night game today. We're going to talk about that on the Hangover show tomorrow.

18:24Same with Ravens Vikings. So we're going to hit those two AFC North games. And then what was the third one we were going to talk about tomorrow? Remember? Browns and Jets. Browns and Jets. So that was the third one. So those were three games that we'll be chatting about on the Hangover tomorrow. Right now, we're going to get to some other performances that jumped out to us in week 10. It's time for You Have My Attention. All right, before we move on, we're going to take a quick break.

18:54Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. The New England Patriots, after a 28-23 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are now 8-2. A lot of the conversations we've had about New England on this show, even when we've probably included them in this segment over the first nine weeks of the season, My guess is it's been a lot of Drake May, you have my attention. Drake May had some moments in this game. Drake May was not at his best in this game. And the fact that the Patriots didn't need him to be, to beat a very real Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that while banged up has still been a pretty good team over the course of this season, I think that says a lot, not only about what the quarterback is doing, but what the rest of this team is capable of.

19:36And so after that win today, a multifaceted win today, New England Patriots, you have my attention. It was a lot of guys. It really was. Like Drake may have had a number of good throws that we'll end up talking about. But like Travion Henderson finally having a huge day. I thought the defense in large stretches played pretty well. Like Baker hit a number of like really good like dig route throws in this game. But down to down, it was not very consistent for the Bucs offense. Like they really held them to a pretty good game there. And like I'm what is really becoming impressive to me about this team is like, yeah, when it first started to happen I was a lot of like okay you get the quarterback Drake May looks awesome everything is going to start to falling in line but the fact that and Dave I'm not doing this just to gas you up Klavan Chason had a rep in this game he was really good all game but there was specifically so for one he's been he's been a good pass rusher this year but him being like a lighter guy it's like okay you could sell me on him being like a decent DPR if things really turned on for him there was in the middle of the third quarter they tried to like zone run at him and he stonewalls K.

20:37Daughton. I'm like, alright, man. If this coaching staff is getting K. LeVon Chase on to set the edge like that, something's going on. Oh, so we're talking about even different plays because he blew up the fourth and three that put the Bucs behind the eight ball. I just loved the synergy of it because all season long, Baker's been breaking out of that situation and doing some goofy shit and scrambling, making an extended throw. And Caleb on, he stunts inside, blows it up and he doesn't get the, actually nobody gets the sack because Baker's a freak, but he blows the whole thing up and two other guys come in and clean it up.

21:19And like week after week teams fail to make that play on Baker Mayfield. And I thought it was very poetic that the Patriots pulled it off. I laughed so hard because on that play, like he, he, uh, Caleb on comes in, he hits Baker and then the other guys clean up and Baker like bends himself in half to break out of it. And on the TV copy, you see him just pop out of this massive humanity like Michael Myers, like just the unkillable man. But the Patriots rarely, they managed to get it done, which has not been common this season against Baker Mayfield. There are a few layers to point out. So that's the fourth and three at the end of the game.

21:55And then two plays later, Travion takes it 69 yards, arguably could have gone down to end the game, decides he wants to score a second touchdown. Respect for that. I would do him. On that fourth and three you're talking about, there's a backup left guard in the game because Ben Bredesen left this game early, which if I were a Bucs fan and just the amount of offensive linemen in and out of the lineup, you get Luke Kadecki back today, but then you have to lose your starting left guard. That's how it works. So Michael Jordan fails to pick up Chase Onn as a looper on that play. He pressures Baker, blows up the fourth and three.

22:25On the third and three, the play before that, just talking about role players getting involved here, Craig Woodson drives on a throw to Kate Otten that should have been a pretty easy completion, breaks it up to force that fourth and three, and that allows Kalevan Chason to make that play to, in effect, give the Patriots a chance to win the game. So that's kind of what we're getting at here is that there are a lot of guys getting involved through the Patriots, especially on defense in this game, that now that this team is 8-2, they're going to be a playoff team, we're going to start to get to know some of the guys who are chipping in here maybe in more quiet ways.

22:58And actually one more in terms of guy who like, I don't know if he had like one super play in this game that really stood out to me, but Kairos Tonga, their other defensive tackle who is not Milton Williams and Christian Barmore. He is awesome. Like he is a really, really good run defender for them. And I do think that he makes the job easier for these linebackers. And especially with some of the injuries they've had at linebacker outside of Robert Spillane. So again, it's just a lot of these guys that were supposed to be just like, okay, can you patch this spot up for us? And they've been more than that.

23:25Which I don't, speaking, mentioning one of my favorite players, not like a superhuman game from Robert Spillane, but just doing his Robert Spillane thing, throwing himself around like a crash test dummy. Love watching him. Christian Gonzalez had a very, very nice game today. So he gets one DPI at one point on a fade in the third quarter, and then he gives up a catch on that same drive. He's playing off coverage. They had like a little deep out in Mecca Buka. But you look at the game as a whole, in man coverage, nine snaps against Ibuka today per next-gen stats, three targets, one catch for 11 yards on those nine plays in man coverage.

24:01Overall, he's on Ibuka a huge majority of the time in this game and three catches for 56 yards on nine targets on the plays where he is covering Emeka Ibuka. And the Bucs really had nowhere else to turn in the passing game. And so you felt the fact that the Patriots against this version of the Bucs offense with this few weapons, they could really kind of snuff them out in man coverage. And that shouldn't necessarily be surprising given the talent that the Bucs have at corner, but it still is nice to see that gear of this defense, even if the Bucs are banged up, to be able to do that against a team that has a real NFL offense.

24:37Exactly. It was at least like, again, this Patriots defense against better teams is going to have some holes, but like you tried to build this roster a certain way with just like, can we get man coverage guys and then a front that is just going to like kind of mess up, mess some stuff up every now and then. And then like you get in some of these games some proof of concept of that. And so, again, I thought their defense played a really, really good game today. I didn't have time to go back and rewatch the entire thing from from the all 22 angle. But I just think it's interesting as aggressive as he is and as good as he's been at doing it at times this year.

25:08Baker only attempted one throw of 20 plus air yards. And like throughout the game, you could see him looking for it. And he would ultimately settle or check it down or or scramble or move off of it. And to just eliminate that aggressiveness from a guy who plays that way, like Baker Mayfield, it stood out to me just watching him not attempt throws. And I think part of that probably is because that's how much man coverage they played. Like he Baker to me is not a guy who like layers the ball against man coverage all that well. I don't think he likes that. He's very good about like knowing where the spots are in the zone.

25:39I know we've got a good zone beater here. I'm going to throw it, especially earlier in the year down the field. That's a lot of what they were doing, especially to a Mecca Buka. So against these teams that can just play, they built the whole thing to play man coverage. It's just like it's a tough day for him, especially when offensive lines got injuries. He's really only got one of his best receivers. It's a tough scenario. The Bucs were actually, if you look at success rate and down-to-down efficiency in this game, it wasn't too bad. They just had a lot of third and fourth downs that did not go their way.

26:05Obviously, you have the OPI on the fourth down that they would have converted. That turns into a fourth and 13. That's a swing moment in the game. And they had multiple plays in this game where they're trying to get Ibuka in one-on-one moments on third down. option routes whip routes and those are the moments where Gonzalez like really shines through in the first quarter Baker nearly gets picked by Gibbons on like a little bender he doesn't find him and on the next play it's third and six they try to get a book on an option route and Gonzalez is just all over it and then in end of the first quarter again they try to get Gonzalez one-on-one against Ibuka and he just completely snuffs it out and so you saw that over and over and over again in this game where they were like this is your receiver that we are even slightly worried about this is one of the best man coverage corners in the entire nfl that's what we're going to rely on we don't trust anyone else to beat us and they were right the bucks as currently constructed did not have the horsepower to make that happen and the last thing i'll say too dave you made a point of like baker was throwing trying to throw downfield and then realizing it's not open i'm going to check it down without bucky like the backs are just not as good at like it's just not It's not as scary.

27:11And like Sean Tucker had a drop in this game, I think on a screen, which again, if that's Bucky, he's probably not dropping that. Like it's just when you don't have as much of the explosive guys as you want, it's just tough to live the way that they were trying to live. It was a shakier game for Drake May overall. You just look at the numbers and then there were some stretches. The red zone pick was. The red zone pick was bad. Even the first drive of the game, right? He throws a fade to Matt Collins that's just like nowhere near getting completed. They ran a corner rat to Matt Collins against two men.

27:39Vea kind of walks Bradbury back into him. Diaby gets the corner against Campbell. It's condensing a little bit. He sails that throw. And so he just looked more uncomfortable in this game than he has most of the season up to this point. And that necessarily shouldn't be surprising. Like the Bucks defense has been a really good unit, but then you have a couple moments and a couple stretches from Drake May in this game where you're like, oh yeah, like that's the guy I recognize from what this entire season up to this point has looked like. That's why he is in the conversation to be the MVP. We can talk about some of those, but it wasn't the best game from him, but there was more than enough when they needed it for him in like really high leverage moments.

28:18And here's my, my copium aspect too. I'll do my Derek impression, defend, defend the guy. I love this. Give me a break here. Throw an end zone interception, like a boneheaded mistake like that against a good team at their place. Very often in the league that costs you in a game that you lose and to, to not, to not have that happen, to bail your quarterback out of a mistake like that, it's a mark of a pretty good team. Like, good teams do shit like that. Yeah, there were just, Drake May, what he can do against the Blitz is just like, he just, he's calm. This is actually my overarching reason why I think they're just a fun team to watch and just a good team to watch.

28:59It just never feels unsettled. Like, even if they get backed up, or he does make a mistake, or whatever it is, or, you know, defense puts them in a bad spot, feel position wise they just it always feels like it's going to turn out fine and you just see that in the moments where he splits like even if they get free rushers like um I think it was towards the end of the second quarter there's it was the two minute drive yes the two minute drive there's a third and seven blitz and he just they get a free rusher off the left side so he's standing there like he knows he's going to take this shot but again we've talked about this with him with the blitz his ability to just like kind of get a little bit higher with his throwing motion when he has to pop it over the defender, rips one to Demario Douglas right past the little zone defender sitting on the hash.

29:41Like he just, his ability to see and throw it, he's so confident. He's so accurate in all these moments. He's just, he's phenomenal to watch. That was my favorite stretch of the entire game from him was that drive in the two minute. And I mean, he stacked up like multiple plays on that drive. He rips one to digs on a crosser against quarters for about 20 yards, comes back with a curl to Mac Hollins against quarters, which is like on time, accurate throw. Those are like ropes. It is straight through the guy's chest. Because they're playing in a condensed way. They're coming down on those routes.

30:11And so those throws have to be on time, accurate, and he throws two missiles in a row. And then that play where he... So on that play you're talking about that he hits Tamaro Davis on, Levante David comes untouched on that play. And what I love about that play is that Davis is coming on a little quick in-breaker, little tiny glance. And Anthony Nelson is dropping out into the lane that you would typically throw that ball. And so what Drake does, knowing that the space is vacated because the off-ball linebackers are the ones that were blitzing, he leaves it in the middle of the field inside of where Nelson is, and it becomes a catch and run for DeMario Douglas.

30:47And so that is just like a nicely layered ball. And then that drive ends with the beautiful throw to Stephon Diggs in the back left corner of the end. On the last play of the half, yeah. Which is a gorgeous play. And then the other one, again, just like the layering he can do and the touch he puts on some of these throws, the one he hit to Kyle Williams I've got it pulled up right now it's just beautiful it's 21 personnel it's play action it's a little crosser to Kyle Williams and the touch he puts on that ball to allow him to run after catch and finish that thing off for a 72 yard touchdown again it wasn't a perfect game but there are three four five moments where you're like ah shit this guy can play the Kyle Williams play to me like I think he has two superpowers one is like his core strength is bonkers so on that play they have a tight I think it's Austin Hooper on the right side loses through his inside shoulder so Drake May if the tight end to his right is losing through inside shoulder that's like crowding your throwing platform he just like stands where he just snaps it and throws it right over I think it was Chris Braswell maybe it was Chris Braswell and then the way that he leads Williams perfect stride like does not it's like he was sprinting on air it's like he wasn't trying to catch a football and I do think Drake May has a special ability to do that I got the end zone copy up in front of me right now like his elbows way down by the small of his back and I he could probably feel Chris Braswell's breath on his neck when he let this ball go and it's just perfect it's it's I don't know if it's not the best throw that happened this weekend it's it's up there man it's so good you look at it they had 7.4 yards per play in this game and some of that is the long runs of Travion Henderson but they were explosive even if down to down they weren't quite as efficient quite as consistent as they have been in other games this year.

32:29And so a big win for the New England Patriots. A couple of nice moments for Travion Anderson. You know, the fact that we got to see him like be that home run hitter in this game in a way that we haven't, that's also a nice thing to see. He probably should have gone down, but I was going to defend him. Like given the way that the first half of his season is gone, it is completely justifiable if he's like, screw that. I'm going to force you to give me more snaps with what I'm doing here. And yeah, I mean, two house calls in one game is a great way to do that. So move on to our next one here. The Detroit Lions destroy the Washington Commanders 44 to 22 in a very interesting game.

33:06A lot going on during this broadcast. Lions go to six and three. Commanders fall to three and seven. I'd say the most notable thing in my mind, even with all of the other stuff going on today, was the fact that mid-game, we find out through a couple different avenues. One, Mike Garofalo tweets it out. Clearly he had been picking up some string over the course of the week about this potentially happening. That with Dan Campbell's little reader glasses on and his play sheet in front of him, sure seems like he's the one calling the plays and that there would have been a disconnect in his words that had formed between John Morton and some of the players and the coaches on staff.

33:45And then at halftime, Megan Olevy from Fox asked Dan Campbell, are you the one calling plays? And he essentially admits it. He's like, I felt like we needed to mix it up a little bit. So this was our first effort since, you know, that half a season when him and Ben Johnson were kind of doing it together, that we have seen Dan Campbell as the primary play caller for the Detroit Lions. I don't know. Pretty first, pretty good first game. Pretty first, pretty good first entry in that. It's Washington and Washington's defense is falling apart, but not a bad performance from the Detroit Lions offense.

34:14Dan Campbell, the play caller. You have my attention. I believe that was Detroit's second best offensive success rate for any time in the last three seasons. The only game better was when they just demolished Jacksonville last year, like 52 to 6 or whatever. That game sticks out a lot when you're looking at like multi-season stats, like single game moments. So, yeah, I mean, yes, Washington's defense is basically a smoking crater, but second best offensive success rate for an offense that has had God knows how many 30, 40, and 50 point games over the last three years. I'd say that's pretty good against anybody.

34:49Well, and they also, Dan Campbell said after the game when he was talking about it, he was like, you know, he was really trying to like dance around what was going on. But one of the things that he did say was like, he just thought maybe going to a different play caller could get us a different rhythm. You know what rhythm probably means to Dan Campbell? It probably means running the ball really efficiently. And in this game, they did that. They had a 47 % rushing success rate, which was their second best of the season and their best since they played Baltimore in week three, which like that version of the Ravens barely felt like a real defense at that point.

35:17So for them to do that in this game and kind of get back to, again, I think what Dan Campbell wants to be, you know, we joked all offseason or like some people tried to make the cope of like when Ben Johnson left, oh, it's Dan Campbell's offense. Well, now we are at least getting like a real entry into like, it is Dan Campbell's offense. Now we get to find out. And so the fact that you are moving on from your play caller halfway through the season, that's not necessarily a good thing. But the fact that you can go to your head coach and have a game like this. We'll see what it looks like against better defenses.

35:44But again, this is a good first entry in this version of what the Lions offense is going to look like. Just digging into some of the specifics of what was different for Detroit's offense today compared to so far over the course of this season, more jumbo than in any game this year for the Lions. 10.3 % of their plays. It was 10.6 yards per play when they were in those jumbo looks. They had one play where they broke it out in jumbo into gun and it was like an easy pitch and catch down on Ross St. Brown, Dan Skipper was lined up as the number one receiver to the right side. So they did a little bit out of that and more than we had seen from them pretty much any game this year.

36:18They did less two or more tight end stuff than in any game this year. They had been at least 50 % of their plays with multiple tight ends on the field since week six. Today it was 26.5%. And so I think some of the jumbo stuff was replacing some of the two tight end stuff that they had been doing previously. They had their highest play action rate of the year per next gen sets, 51.4 % of dropbacks involved play action. It's the first time all season they've been over half their snaps. And the one that's really notable is that since week six, so I think their last three or four games, they had been in the gun on more than two thirds of their plays over that stretch, which is kind of out of character for what you'd expect from this offense.

36:59Today, they were back under center on about 50 % of their plays. And so it really did feel like, you know what? some of this like gimmicky bullshit or just some of these things that maybe are a little bit further removed straying from who we want to be we're going to get back to basics today and so that is the version of the Detroit offense that we got in this game yeah and I mean how many of like specifically last week when they were playing against the Vikings how many of their worst plays were like they're in gun by the Vikings like double dog blitzed over the center and they just like they got exploded and I think Dan Campbell probably went into this game after watching that film and he was like I don't want that to happen again I would not like to be in the formations or the down and distances for any of that stuff to happen and so I just thought they played a really put together game and like some of just like the the particular play calls I thought were fun like to me Dan Campbell is a Sean Payton guy and I think that you see some of that and so the first Gibbs touched it on the first drive they just have two tight ends aligned to the right side in the back to that side they send both tight ends on vertical routes it pushes all those defenders a little bit up the field obviously in that they just throw the little Texas route to Jameer Gibbs under it and he's as athletic as he is he's gonna make that work every time just very small just like that's just sound football type of plays that we got from them today it felt like and we already qualified all of this with who they're playing and I get that and I'm sorry if I'm dog piling on the commanders but having multiple guys on your offense who look like they're moving at a different speed like it's college ball that's I mean that that's not good for the commanders anyway it's great for the lions but like jameer gibbs and jamo williams some of the stuff they're doing particularly i mean gibbs gibbs was incredible yeah and unfortunately we all we all know how good he is and how explosive he is but it looked that much worse against what washington's trotting out there where it's just like what are you supposed to do it also felt like they were getting james williams involved in a way that he just hasn't been recently i think he had seven targets in this game which i think matches his season high up to this point and even just some of the stuff that they were doing with him with like one-on-one comeback routes on the outside like giving him targets in those moments that are not necessarily designed targets just like well you have a one-on-one we trust you to get open in this moment that's not normally how we've seen him use within this offense and so the fact that he was kind of featured in a slightly different way again if you're trying to find the layers and kind of the nuances of what felt different today I would also pinpoint that as one of them which like I'm excited about that because like even going all the way back to when he was coming out of Alabama as a prospect, like to me, his stop and start and like ability to throttle up and down at the top of routes with his speed was like, you want to weaponize that as much as you can.

39:34And I think especially with the new play caller with Morton this year, they just kind of struggled to figure out what that was supposed to look like. Obviously, earlier in his career, he had the suspension. He had some drop issues. So there's just like always kind of been something. But I think if Dan Campbell feels comfortable that he has the formula to unlock a player like that I mean Gibbs and Williams is probably about as fast as a duo you can find outside of Miami in terms of your two best skill players the last thing I want to mention about this game you know you're getting your ass kicked when you have a guy that just purposely essentially gets himself thrown out of the game like Deron Payne just like walling off and punching Amon Ross St.

40:07Brown in the face knowing it's like this is it for me today that's the type of game we were dealing with with the Lions that whole play just you only need to see that snap to know what happened here because That was the Jameer Gibbs 13-yard touchdown run. He goes off right tackle, breaks a tackle in the backfield, and then just punks Washington's defense getting to the edge. He outruns like three guys to the corner, gets upfield. Then they finally corral him at the five, and Sam Laporta and Amon Ross St. Brown are like, **** you. This is getting to the end zone. We don't care. and then yeah and then your best defender gets thrown out after that happens and it's just like all right we we can probably put we can move this to the quad box we we know what's going to happen yeah i can understand not wanting to be involved in that game anymore if i were to run paint i'm not really blaming him for that no last one here jonathan taylor has a a monster game against the atlanta falcons early this morning the colts beat the falcons 31 to 25 in overtime let me pull up the numbers just so I have them in front of me here.

41:14As a team, the Indianapolis Colts run for 323 yards in this game. Jonathan Taylor, for his part, runs for 244 yards on 32 carries. In a game where the Colts turned the ball over multiple times, Colts gave up six sacks, multiple fourth down failures, just was not the well-oiled machine we have seen for a good majority of the season from the Colts. And it did not matter in large part because of what their running back was able to do over the course of this one. Dave, Jonathan Taylor in a big win for the Colts. You have my attention. I know we're doing, we're doing a mid season award show later this week, so we don't have to get too deep into this right now, but I was watching this and I know there's a lot of love for JT for offensive player of the year right now.

42:03Obviously, JSN is having an incredible season, but I watched this game and I watched the way it ended and I watched what Jonathan Taylor did to get them back into this because the 83 yarder gave them the lead for the first time that happened mid fourth quarter it gave them the lead for the first time since mid second quarter like this this absolutely was in the fire for the Colts puts them back on top seals the deal and I just found myself the whole time thinking and and I get there's there's a lot of components to it right like the offensive line has been phenomenal this year the the passing game all works very well and plays off of each other.

42:41But Jonathan Taylor, any running back would have this Colts team like playing pretty well. Jonathan Taylor is why the Colts are like an exceptional team. Like Jonathan Taylor elevates the ceiling of this team so, so much. And it was on display throughout this game. It reminds me exactly of the conversation we're having about Saquon Barkley. Yeah, it's very similar. It's similar DNA in the play caller. It all looks the same. Yeah, I just, you have really good offensive line play, really good offensive infrastructure. but when your back can kind of take that thing to the next level. I've used this analogy many, many times over the last year.

43:15I've always, when we thought about running back value and how you sequence the right running back with the rest of your team building plan, I've always said that an elite running back, I've said recently that an elite running back is like adding lighter fluid to a fire that's already lit. Unless the fire is already lit, the running back can only do so much for you. We've seen good running backs not really perform well in bad situations. But if you've been able to rub two sticks together based on the quality of your offensive line and your play caller A guy like this can turn his thing into an inferno And there have been a lot of moments so far this year for the colts offense Including today where that was the feeling that you got second most rushing yards over expectation in a game by a running back this year That's not terribly surprising because the entire 83 yard touchdown was over expectation He should have gotten dumped in the back.

44:04Runs into his own lineman and then backs out of it. And he's like, oh, there's nobody in front of me. Forced 11 missed tackles in this game. That's third highest in a game this season by a running back. Rushed for 11 first downs in this game, which is the most by a running back in a game this year. The only like the craziest thing to me is that this wasn't his career high somehow. Really? Yes. it was his third 200 yard day but second to he had 253 against Jacksonville the year he had 1800 that makes sense getting that close to the record and it not being your best day is kind of insane he's just he's so impressive man and I there are a lot of good players on the Colts but like are they exceptional at anything else other than just toting the hell out of this damn rock like I was thinking about it too like sauce gardner gets here just in time for deforest buckner to go on injured reserve and you could tell how much they missed him trying to defend the run against atlanta i just i kind of think they'd be up shit creek without this guy just being the best running back in football this year do we want to have like a preliminary daniel jones conversation after the way that the last two weeks have gone are you at a point where you're slightly worried about this being a team that just traded two first round picks for a defensive player.

45:22He's Daniel Jones. All right, so that's where you currently sit. Like you are right now waiting for him to turn back into a pumpkin. You're one of those people. I'm like in between. Actually, it's funny. I was telling you this right before we went live. When Daniel Jones gets the ball out, it still looks really good. Like even against, I know he threw a bunch of picks last week against the Steelers, but like down to down, they were actually still pretty good. He made a lot of really impressive throws. And then even this week, like when the ball came out, he made a number of really obviously the throw that he makes to Alec Pierce on the touchdown, like giving him chances.

45:52But he just made a number of other, especially to the intermediate area, has been very accurate. But for the first like eight weeks of the season, he just wasn't getting sacked or turning the ball over the way that he used to in a way that was just like, are these eight weeks real or are the six other seasons that he played in the NFL more real? And it just feels like some of that stuff is coming back to earth. So I don't think he's going to be like all bad. I just think that there's going to be more volatility with him moving forward than there was for the first six, seven weeks of the season when everything was just kind of going perfectly and he just wasn't taking sacks.

46:27I had a thought this morning while I was watching this game, getting ready to come to work, where I was just like, it is kind of wild to think that Chris Ballard and the Colts decision makers were so encouraged by nine games of this Daniel Jones that that was enough for them to get rid of their first round draft picks for two years. Like in the, in the big picture, nine games is still like, it's enough of a sample size for us to trust that the Colts are a good team. It's still not a huge sample size when you're talking about, yes, we are, we're set here. We're, we are, we're burning the boats and it'll be Daniel Jones or nobody basically.

47:08I mean, that's the signal that they sent with this trade and they won this game. I get it. But halfway through the game, I was like, that's, that's pretty wild when you take a step back and look at it. but I'm not, I'm not ready. Like in the, in the context of this season, I'm not ready to worry about the Colts. In fact, I think, I think this was a really impressive performance to kind of, you know, like they, they, they're on their bi-week now they're taking the week off. They get Kansas city on the road after the buy, like to play 10 games and you get bloodied up a little bit. Some teams get the better of you.

47:38They figure out some ways they can take advantage of you to rally and come from behind in a game that you trailed in the fourth quarter and find a way to win before you get a little bit of time off, I actually think that's pretty impressive. So I'm not worried right now. I am a little nervous about the thought of not having any first round picks for a couple of years. My biggest question with him is that, and this is something we talked about with Baker a little bit, you know, over the last couple of years where for most of his career, Baker, when he was pressured, would run into trouble. It just was not where he was at his best.

48:10He tried to extend plays when he shouldn't extend plays. He had bad habits when it came to drifting in a pocket. and then over the last couple of years, he's done a really good job of turning those into positives. His feel in the pocket and just his ability to get rid of the ball, the scrambling, all of that. And Daniel Jones did a very good job scrambling today. That was a huge part of the Colts offense. But over the first eight weeks of the season, Daniel Jones was the only quarterback in the NFL with at least 100 dropbacks that had positive EPA when pressured. That just doesn't hold. He had a 42 % success rate on those plays, which was the best success rate of any quarterback in the NFL, one pressure over the first eight weeks.

48:47So it was like four total positive EPA over that stretch. In the last two games combined, he has negative 33 and a half EPA when pressured. Negative 33 and a half. That is dead last in the NFL, if you can imagine. It would be pretty hard to be a whole lot worse than that. He's down to like a 35-ish percent success rate. And so it probably exists somewhere in the middle, right? He probably won't be as bad over the course of the rest of the season as he's been over the last two weeks, but he also won't be as good as he was over the first eight weeks. So where he lands between those two poles, I think that's going to go a long way in defining what the Colts' offense feels like in the back half of the year.

49:29And to me, it's just like some of the interception stuff can go up and down. I'm like, whatever. Yeah, some of that stuff can just be weird, whatever, bounce at the ball, whatever. To me, it's just that he took six sacks in the first seven games that they played. He's taken 15 in the last three weeks. Took six today. Yeah, he took seven today. He's taken how many in the last three? In the last three, he's taken 15. Yeah, and 12 over the last two. Seven? Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's been rough. The couple stood out today, but the one that was particularly egregious is that they were trying to throw a screen on that third down.

50:03And that ball just has to get thrown at Jonathan Taylor's feet. And it doesn't, and it turns into a strip sack. And so there are too many of those moments over the last couple of weeks. I thought that some of the turnovers last week specifically were kind of fluky. I was actually more discouraged by his overall play today than I was last week when they turned the ball over a million times, just because of what it looked like when he was getting heated up. All right, before we move on, let's take one more quick break.

50:31All right, we're going to get to the other side of the coin here. It is time to talk about some of the lesser performances in week 10. Let's get to what the f***. What the f***? What the f***? What? This is an easy place to start. Every once in a while when you're watching these games, it's like, all right, well, the show is programming itself. The Buffalo Bills get blown out today by the Miami Dolphins, 30 to 13. Bills fall to 6 and 3 on the season. The Dolphins move to 3 and 7. I mean, there's no fancy framing needed for this. Buffalo Bills, what the f***? In the same way that we were talking about at the top of the show, like teams, what is your floors?

51:10What are your ceilings? The Bills have shown us multiple times now that they can get kind of hammered by teams that are like middle of the pack or worse. The fact that this has happened to them by the Falcons, who have lost the game 30 to 0 to the Carolina Panthers, by the way. And this Dolphins team that came in 2 and 7, like that is unacceptable for a team that has especially came into the year with number one AFC seed type of aspirations. And then still, I think through most of the season has been like you could be the AFC contender. for them to have multiple games like this against teams like the Falcons and the Dolphins is just like you you can't I don't care that you beat the Chiefs already like I just these games cannot happen the vibes in Buffalo have to be terrible between absolutely nothing getting done at the trade deadline which like I personally don't really care about I mean the cruel irony of this is that they tried to trade for J1 and then he lit that on fire in this game not only do they not get anything done, but a guy that they were reported to be interested in goes off in this game and you get your ass kicked by a division rival one week after that.

52:15I mean, I'm not saying I think this, but I bet the I bet there's a lot of sky is falling vibes in Western New York right now. What do you is the most troubling part of this Bill's performance there? Well, so not. OK, I have multiple things. first I would say I would say why this game was so troubling is their offensive identity all year has been can we get heavy and can we run the ball on you and can we just make this thing feel kind of settled can we get into a rhythm they could not do that at all today they ran incredibly poorly and what they've been doing a lot of lately is is like getting into 22 personnel and I even did a video for it uh for our youtube channel this week miami just blew them up like i thought their linebackers played a really good game matthew judon on the edge was like really really squeezing a lot of these plays like chubb was really good like they just they did not allow the bills to get into the down and distances they want and then when they went pure pass like the other thing i was going to say like josh allen just doesn't look settled when they're in like your drop so that's the other thing yeah all right i was going to say what is your other concern that's the other Like when they get in pure pass, three step, five step drop back, none of the play action stuff off their heavy stuff.

53:27He just looks more frantic than I think he usually does. I'm pretty sure they're screwed if they can't run the ball. Yes, that is how it feels. That's not that deep, right? Like that's everybody in football for the most part. They feel more like the Falcons offense than they should. Where like when the Falcons are running the ball well, things tend to start to work out for them. But we know that it's generally flimsy. The Bills feel more like that than they should for a team that has their aspirations. Their first down rushing success rate on the year is 44.2%, which is the second best in the NFL.

53:57Today, it was 16.7. They could not run the ball on early downs. They also, to your point, they sucked in 21 and 22 personnel. They had the second best rushing success rate with those personnel packages on the field this year. Today, second best in the NFL would be 41%. Today, it was 21%. Like, they weren't getting any movement. And you shouted him out, but I thought Jordan Brooks was freaking awesome. He's been awesome. Every time that this team wins a game, they shouldn't. He's one of the reasons. It was the exact same situation when he destroyed the Falcons. I mean, he's been all over the place.

54:35I counted six run stuffs, including two on third down early in the game. He had a big play on Ray Davis in the red zone that stopped the Bills. And then on the next snap, Josh threw the end zone interception. So he had a great play there. And all of that's before he forces the fumble of Josh Allen on the 15-yard run. He was awesome. And I felt like every ball thrown under five yards, Jordan Brooks was just taking out a guy, whether it was like he was knocking the ball out or he was just making a really tackle for a not-efficient gain for the offense. And it's funny you mentioned all their lack of success rate out of 22 personnel, which again has been their identity.

55:12When they were finally driving in the late second quarter, they do a zone toss to the left James Cook out of this 22 personnel it hits he gets to like 8-10 yards ball gets punched out and it's just like it just felt like they were not settled at all they could not find whatever their identity was I do want to say that and that's what I said I'm not super duper panicking about this it's pretty gross and you lose a game by 17 points to the Dolphins I get it but James Cook fumbles on a ball on a run that gets you to the red zone basically you're down 13 nothing Josh throws an end zone interception that would have given you a chance to climb back in in the mid third quarter and then after all of that it's uh you it's you're down 16 to 6 with 7 to play when Josh fumbles on the on the keeper that Jordan Brooks pokes out well they had the worst tush push experiences of all time today they had the fourth and one fake tush push where they threw the ball to Jackson Hawes down the field so that's a turnover on downs.

56:11And then on a converted one later in the game, he fumbles 15 yards down the field. Josh Allen does. They could have they could have climbed back into this and made it a goofy game where maybe they don't win, but it's dramatic at the end. And you're just like, oh, my God, Dolphins, how did you not put this game away? But every time it looked like they were going to do that, they shot themselves in the foot. And so, I mean, that is bad. But over a larger sample size, I'm thinking the Bills can avoid doing that on a regular basis. I'm with you when it comes to tearing out the most concerning parts about this game and what they mean for this team moving forward.

56:48I probably have more faith that we won't see another game like this with them struggling on the ground. Like if you think about this game in the context of what the Bills have been over the last three or four years, today they had a 23.1 % rushing success rate, which is their worst in a game since week 18 of the 2023 season. for James Cook. And it's the third worst rushing success rate game he has had since he was a member of the Buffalo Bills. It's the worst EPA per carry mark for any game in which he has carried the ball 10 times since he has been a member of the Bills. I don't think that will continue.

57:21But what's concerning is if you do remove that, how little it feels like they can tap into when they're forced to throw the ball, especially in pure drop-back situations. There was a bunch of different moments in this game where you're just kind of watching it unfold and it's just like, what is this? there was a third and ten early in the second quarter where they just throw a fade to Keon Coleman when he's like completely blanketed it's like that's your best play here and then there were multiple plays where if they aren't able to run like Mesher or like crossing routes on third down against what they assume to be man coverage they just don't really know where to turn and there were multiple moments in this game where you kind of felt that there was a third and seven in the second quarter they run Mesher to cover two there's nothing there Josh takes off he gets sacked by Zach Seeler There was another play that I thought was a really impressive moment from the Bills D or for the Dolphins defense in this game.

58:12It was they're down. It's a 252 left in the first quarter. Those are down seven, nothing. The Dolphins or the Dolphins check into cover two after a motion that they think they're getting man coverage. And then Josh throws it to James Cook for a four yard loss on that play. Then there was another one where he has like a quick little, it's like a double slant. And he has, I think, Keon Coleman on the outside slant was looking at him and just refuses to throw the ball on like a second and 10. And so just, it's coming from a bunch of different directions. But every time they were in like a pure drop back situation in this game, it just felt like it was unsettled.

58:50You're going to look at some of the stats in this game, success rate, everything else for the Bills offense. You'd be like, oh, it wasn't that bad of a game. every single big play they had in the passing game required Josh Allen to run around for three seconds before finding someone late in the down. Nothing was on time for them consistently throughout this entire thing. That's exactly it. When they started to come back, it was just like old, like 2020 Josh hero mode stuff. It was not a consistent put together offense. The one where you're talking about where he has the double slants and just doesn't trigger on it.

59:19That was like what we've lauded Josh for doing the past two years. It's like he's very efficient, passable, just like tick, tick, tick through the progression, boom, ball's gonna be out. just does not feel like, obviously in this game, didn't do that, but just more stretches of that this season where it's kind of felt that. And then even the red zone in the interception, obviously it's a bad play, but like they take the number two and kind of yo-yo motion him. So it looks like it's going to be man. And it plays out as man after the fact, but Josh Allen sees, I forget which tight end, get to the top of his route and like stutters and knows that it's not open.

59:50And then he just throws it anyway. And it's like, that just doesn't feel like a mistake that he makes anymore. It was very bizarre. Another thing worth mentioning is the best bet they've got going in the passing game. Dalton Kincaid leaves this game with a hamstring injury. We've talked about that. He feels like the most important piece of this passing game in a way that he has not been in the past. And he feels crucial to what they're doing. Both of his catches today were explosives. And then you lose him in the third quarter. So, I mean, hopefully that's not long-lasting because it looked rough.

1:00:23I don't want to absolve the Bills' defense in this game. either, by the way. That's what I was going to say. One other small minor twist, just in terms of like, maybe ego is the wrong word, but like, again, the Bills built their offensive identity of like getting into like two backs, 21, 22 personnel, 13 personnel, this stuff. When Miami got into that today, they kicked their ass. Yes. And that is embarrassing. That is embarrassing that like you see this every day in practice and this Dolphins team rocks up to you with that same stuff and just mauls you. Like a number of their, the run game, I think it was a little bit more up and down, but like they're almost every big play action pass that they tried to hit out of 21, 22, whatever it was, they were able to find it like consistently throughout the day.

1:01:02Dolphins, like if you look at success rate and things like that, it wasn't a crazy day on the ground. They still had stretches in this game where they did just fine. The first drive of the game, the first touchdown drive of the game for the Bills. That's one of those like, I can't believe you were letting this team do this to you. They just shoved it down their throat for that entire drive. 22 personnel lead play with Ingold goes for seven yards. they pull both Patrick Paul and Brewer into a six-man box. It's a 15-yard chunk as Milano misses a tackle. They flip it to A-Chan on the perimeter. It's a funky look where they have like two guys offset in the shotgun to the right side, the Dolphins do, and they flip it back to A-Chan for a chunk to the left side.

1:01:39And then on that play, it's a little high-low for Malik Washington to get the touchdown. And so they run it down your throat the entire way, and then they hit a little high-low for the touchdown. On the next drive, there's a little bit of others, There's a 14-yard chunk to Waddle off of play action where they're in jumbo and he hits a little play action drift route. And on the next play, they go jumbo 22 personnel again, the Dolphins do, and they hit Waddle on the sluggo for a touchdown against Harrison. It's 14-0. They hit another in the middle of the second quarter. They go like offset right eye formation out of 22, and they roll Tua to the left, and then they have Waddle on a corner back to the right side into the boundary, which like that's a perfect way to get Tua to throw back to the boundary, by the way, is to like use the short side of the field.

1:02:24It really is. Like I thought it was a really good design. And so like almost every time they went into that heavy stuff and play action, like the Bills just had no answer for it. And then even again in the run game, like the game, effectively the game ending a Chan run that puts it, I think, 30 to 13 to pretty much end it. They just run crack toss to the left side. Cedric Wilson nukes Jordan Poyer, like explodes him and just like opens up the hole. And then I think Patrick Paul had like a free shot on a DB. And it's just like, when you give that amount of space to the fastest man in football at running back, like, yeah, he's going to take it to the house.

1:02:56And on that play specifically, if you look at the way that it's lined up on the end zone film, Terrell Bernard is lined up like head up over the center. There is no action the other way. And he is late enough to get to that action outside that Aaron Brewer is the center, beats him to the spot and ends up sealing him off and allows A-Chan to get in for the touchdown. So that's a 35 yarder. On the 59-yarder, this is just like nightmare fuel where you have, it's Cam Lewis, misses A-Chan in the hole. Poyer takes a miserable angle. Bernard gets washed out by Cole Strange, and he's off to the races.

1:03:29On that play specifically, this is another one where like, I can't believe you're letting them do this to you. Aaron Brewer has been better this year just in terms of like one on one on one on one He's put on weight. The play strength has improved on that play. The 59 yard H and touchdown, Aaron Brewer, who still probably weighs like 305 on a good day, one on one handles Day on Walker, who is what? Six, eight, 330. And so the fact that this Bills team or this Dolphins team was able to push you around in the way that they were so often in this game, that is just not a place you want to be. And it's so ironic because the Bills offense typically does that to teams and their defense is now set up to get their asses kicked by pretty much anybody that they want to play against that feels even like slightly interested in running the ball.

1:04:14The Chiefs just weren't, right? And so if you're even slightly interested in running the ball in neutral down and distance situations, this Bills team, especially without Ed Oliver, is just not equipped to deal with you. I say this all the time and I mean it. The Bills have, they have built up that sort of equity where I'm not going to worry too much about them and I trust them to sort of get things sorted over the length of the season. And I mean, they're 6-3. It's all gravy. But while y 'all have been talking, I was just curious. Obviously, you lose plenty of games, but in this Josh Allen era, since he became what he is, since he became one of the better quarterbacks in the league, when they get their asses kicked over the years, it's Tennessee back when Tennessee was a contender.

1:04:58It's Baltimore last year. They've never gotten their shit rocked by mediocre teams twice in one year the way they have right now, like Atlanta and now Miami. That hasn't happened to them. And so does that mean that they're not going to win 11 or 12 games? Absolutely not. They probably will. But when it comes to playoff time, and this is one of those teams where we're judging them exclusively on what happens in the playoffs, that's kind of hard for me to ignore. Like when mediocre teams can do this to you, I think it's even if we feel good that they're going to finish with a very good record that concerns me when you get to those sorts of games in the playoffs.

1:05:36If you want to play February football, your worst just should not look this bad. It just should not look this bad. Multiple times. You do it once. Everyone gets one. We said that, I think, the other week. But multiple is just like, it's really hard to live with. It says a lot about the next game that we're going to talk about that the Buffalo Bills potentially had the, the Buffalo Bills may not have had the most embarrassing performance of week 10. That says a lot. At one point when we're watching Jags Texans today, I think Dave was the one that said, did you guys see the score in Jags Texans?

1:06:06Because when the Jags scored with a minute and 37 seconds left in the third quarter, they went up 29 to 10 and they ended up losing the football game. They get outscored 26 to zero in the fourth quarter. The Jags offense had one yard in the fourth quarter. they lose to the Davis Mills Texans, 36 to 29. Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that's still very much alive in the AFC wildcard race, took a big hit today. What the f***? Wire to wire, the Bills game was more embarrassing. That fourth quarter is preposterous. Like, because part of it too, like, obviously both sides of the ball have to collapse for that to happen.

1:06:48Davis Mills legitimately made a number of insane throws on them towards the end of the game. Like he pinned a seam route on Nico Collins at a certain point. The touchdown throw to Schultz in the back of the end zone is delightfully layered. Like Mills actually made a number of insane throws. I wrote them down. Just in the fourth quarter of this game, you get Nico tipping the two-point conversion to himself. This is disgusting one-handed catch at the pylon. Then the bender you just talked about, 22 yards. Nico goes over Devin Lloyd while he's getting hit in the back by Andrew Wingard. pulls that in Dalton Schultz, phenomenal touchdown catch.

1:07:26Jaden Higgins with a great high pointing catch on a, on a second and five, you get the, the DPI on Jerry and Jones, which I thought was kind of shitty to be completely honest with you. And then it's not a throw, but in that same quarter, Trevon Walker whips the right tackles ass on third and goal. And Davis mills of all people houses the, to the, he scrambles for 14 yards to the house. Like Trayvon Walker, who got drafted one overall for his physical freakness, makes that play. And I would never in my life think Davis Mills is going to survive that pressure and that defensive end chasing him and get all the way to the end zone.

1:08:07And it was just that type of fourth quarter for the Jags. When Davis Mills crossed the line of scrimmage there, I was like, I don't know if he or I know what is going to happen next. I don't know if anyone's ready for this. there was plenty of stuff to talk about in the low lights for the Jags over the course of that fourth quarter. To me, the drive to make it 32-29 am I getting the score right here? Yeah, excuse me the drive to make it 30-29 that to me is the most embarrassing one. So they hit Schultz on a big time third and ten where he's coming out a little crosser and Mills makes a really nice throw on that play to get them out of the shadow of their own end zone from there the houston texans this is very similar to the conversation we've had about the dolphins and the bills from that point in that drive the houston texans were like we're going to run the ball down your throat the texans duo for five yards duo for six yards duo insert with the xavier hutchinson it's a great it was a great double team on the right side for another chunk dpi on jones and then no scrambles for the touchdown the fact that on that drive the texans are sitting there being like we're going to run the ball straight downhill you and there is not much you can do about it.

1:09:18That was kind of the feel of this entire game. The Texans had a 67 % success rate on nine jumbo runs in this game. They had nine carries for 67 yards out of those looks. The Texans overall, per NextGenStats, had a 55 % design rush success rate. That is the best rushing success rate they have had in a game since week one of the 2024 season. Remember that game in week one where they played against the Colts? and the way with that monstrous Joe Mixon game where we're like, here come the Texans running game. No, no, that was the game. That was the only one that they had. So their best rushing success rate in a game since that week one performance against the Colts last year, 0.24 EPA per rush.

1:10:00That is the best mark for the Houston Texans in a game since week four of the 2022 season per next gen stats. If you are the Jaguars, how do you feel good about that? When Juke Scruggs, who I thought was really good in the run game today and Trent Brown, who is the backup right tackle on the worst offensive line in the league, are running the ball downhill at you with this game on the line. And like, in a way, like your playoff chances, like hanging in the balance at this stage, that is not the place that you want to be if you were the Jaguars defense. And that's exactly what happened today. We've been advocating for the Texans to give up thinking they can run the football for weeks.

1:10:37Just stop caring about it. Yeah. And today it was one of the reasons they ended up winning this game. the other I mean we have to mention that the game that the front had and like the moments that the front had in this game I mean we can start with any of the any guys you want to but Daniil Hunter and some of the moments that Daniil Hunter had down the stretch to help the Texans win this game absolutely wild the Daniil Hunter was I was telling this to you when we were watching the game the fact that Daniil Hunter can have a game like this where he looks like the best player you've ever seen and he is technically the other guy in this front well that's what i love about it he gets one-on-ones because they because they have pretty much every single play it's so cool like there was so probably his biggest sequence of the day is it late early in the fourth quarter they have a second and five where the jacks are like kind of backed up on their in their own end zone hunter spikes inside on a run play immediately blows it up like it is completely new walk walker little has no shot of getting to him on the very next play it's third and nine and now because he blew that up now he gets a free pass rush rep on what he knows is going to be a good passing down and they stunt him from he's over in the c gap like obviously outside the tackle they loop him all the way back over to where the center would be he gets free they don't pick it up well he gets a sack like he just the speed and power which he plays with sometimes especially against a tackle like this like walker little and anton harrison where i think that they're those are guys that you can push around a little bit.

1:12:02When you're as explosive as Hunter, you just have these moments where you just look unbelievable. So the other guy in this tandem has 108 career sacks. And now they gave him three and a half in this game. He split one. But in a year and a half as a Texan, he's at 20 sacks during his time in Houston already. It's not bad. That is insane. The Jags had a punt return touchdown in this game. they had a muffed kickoff return that allowed them to score a touchdown on the short field and so even the lead they got out on was not necessarily indicative of how their offense was playing against this defense and at some point and the Jags didn't just have the ball much in the fourth quarter but multiple of the big chunk plays for the Jags in this game one is just a dropped coverage where there's a miscommunication with Stingley and I can't remember who the nickel was to that side where they just they dropped the receiver and it was a huge chunk gain the Johnny Munt third and 17 conversion is just a maddening play.

1:13:00Like, Kalen Bullock, you see him after the play being like, I can't believe we just allowed that to happen. But I think eventually the Texans defense just kind of realized, oh, if we play man against this team, there's nothing they can do about it. And that's what the fourth quarter was. Yeah, like, who's going to beat them? You have Jacoby Myers in his first day there, basically. Parker Washington, we like, but when you're playing man coverage with these corners with that pass rush against Parker Washington, and he's probably not going to be the guy who beats you like that. Like this just, the other thing too is like, when this team really wants to play man coverage and they're on it, they're incredible.

1:13:33They've been arguably the best pass defense in the league. They're also, it wasn't just Hunter for the front. Like Trevor had a 56.3 % pressure rate today and on dropbacks of just four man rushes, which he had 20 of them, 60 % pressure rate. Like this was, when you think about like, what is the dream scenario for a game looking like for the Houston, Texas defense? It was that. It's where you get pressure on almost two-thirds of your dropbacks, and then you have some of the best corners in the league. Trevor dropped back six times in the fourth quarter. He got one throw off. I was going to say, I don't know how many of those he threw.

1:14:07And it was mesh, and Aziz Alshair almost picked it off. That play specifically, so Hunter wins around the corner on that play. They're in man coverage. It was almost like a hilarious batted ball. It's just like, it's funny that you're trying to throw this ball right now. It's like you think you're in control. Do you feel like you're in control? That was the sort of moment from the Texas defense on that play. So a hellacious loss for the Jacksonville Jaguars in this game. Not to be outdone by the Carolina Panthers, who came into this game as five and a half point favorites. Our producer, Katie, mentioned this stat when we were talking about the preview show that we were going to do, and we didn't end up getting to it.

1:14:48But I think it's important to bring up here. This game for the Carolina Panthers, coming into it as five and a half point favorites, this is the 11th straight game they have lost outright as favorites. That doesn't seem possible. Have you watched the Panthers over the last two or three years? Being favored 11 times as an NFL team, you would think you stumble into one. Not to not cover the spread. Lost those games outright. This is the 11th straight one. And I mean, this one is absolutely awful. negative 0.32 EPA per play, a 38 % success rate. They averaged three and a half yards per play. Carolina Panthers, a team that seemed like the vibes were good, seemed like you were on your way to being like a respectable NFL team over the course of the rest of the season.

1:15:34You know, maybe you weren't going to be a playoff team, but you were at least going to hang around to have a game like this against the New Orleans Saints. What the f***? This was too, to me, like, the Panthers run game is mostly good, but every now and then a team actually does kind of push them around back and I thought the Saints actually did that today like their ends are a little bit bigger and I think they were able to handle that and then the game that Demario Davis had he just him and Pete Werner I thought played really really well today and so when their front is when the Saints front is playing at their best they actually can look pretty good and I just thought that like I don't even know if there was anything schematic I'm taking away from like there's a flaw in the Panthers this was just like Like the Saints kicked their ass today.

1:16:17It was the couple, there were two moments that stuck out to me in pass protection specifically, where it's like, there's nothing going on like schematically here. It's just guys making really bad mistakes. There was one simulated or like kind of funky pressure where Austin Corbett just loses to, I think it was Shepard on a blitz and Shepard eventually, Nathan Shepard pushes, gets back into it and bothers Bryce Young, forces him to try to bail from the pocket. That ends up as a sack. And then there was another play where it was a simulated pressure about five and a half minutes left in the second quarter.

1:16:48And Iki Aquanu just doesn't block Cam Jordan. Yes, I'm glad he has help inside. And he doesn't block him. I'm glad you bring him up. Did you see the quotes that were coming out of the Panthers locker room after this game? Which I applaud Iki Aquanu for accountability, Jatavian Sanders too. But multiple guys on the Panthers are like, we didn't practice well. We weren't locked in on the small details. You know, like you can feel it on Thursday and Friday that you had a bad practice and you can't wait until Sunday for that stuff to click in. It's all true. I just need to know why the Panthers, like you beat the Green Bay Packers with 16 points and think you've arrived?

1:17:28Exactly. You are not in a position to overlook anyone at the Carolina Panthers. Like of all teams and like very few teams have a better idea of how bad it can be than the Carolina Panthers over the last two or so years. And it was a phenomenal win. But to read your own clippings after one game going into this one is, and especially we've been saying it all year. I mean, with the exception of that Rams game last week, the Saints have been a pain in the ass for everybody who's played. I mean, I guess the Seahawks too. So cool. The best two teams in the league crushed the Saints. And everybody else has had their hands full.

1:18:05And you, the Carolina Panthers, are going to overlook them. That's crazy to me. I think they're the Panthers run game is gonna be better in most games than it was today the Panthers defense I still don't think played bad today I mean the two touchdowns that Tyler shucked through JC Horn fell down yeah people just fell over like whatever he fell down on both of those plays one I mean the design on the Jawan Johnson touchdown he actually does get broken off and that's a really well-designed play on the deep shot to Chris Olave JC Horn just falls down while running with Chris Olave and so the Panthers defense is you know more competent than it has any right to be considering what they were last year, all that stuff.

1:18:38The only thing about this that I'm like truly worried about, and I'm kind of at a point where I'm like, I'm not sure we're coming back from this. The Bryce Young thing to me feels like it's kind of on life support. It feels like it's a little over. The interception he throws at the end to Elante Taylor, where Elante Taylor is like fake firing as the nickel blitzer, and then he pops out into like a deep flat and Bryce Young feels like he's going to need to get a little bit sped up he tries to put it over him I'm honestly not even sure that he sees him but he tries to throw like the deep out just behind him and throws it like missing a linebacker that's dropping he's a flat defender you threw the ball right to him and you threw it straight through his face mask like it just that we can't there are still too many of those moments but to me that's not even it like the decision making is not what I'm most worried about it's when you watch him play and this is always there's always been the concern.

1:19:32He just does not have the physical skill set. Well, him trying to wheel out of the Nathan Shepard set is exactly that. And it's, he is not explosive enough or strong enough or big enough to be as creative as he wants to be. Like the only way he was going to be able to survive as an NFL player was for him to play with incredible anticipation, timing, and accuracy across the board. And that just hasn't happened. If you're going to put him in moments where he has to create against NFL talent, NFL fronts, that's just not going to be a winning formula for you as a team. And so you're going to have to win in every other way.

1:20:10And that just hasn't happened. Those are the areas of his game when it comes to how you're seeing it, how well you're playing on time that should be improving as he's getting older. It does not look nearly as good as it did in the back half of last season. And so if that stuff isn't going to be trending in the right direction, he doesn't have the physical talent to survive otherwise. It's a sad place to reach, but that's kind of where I'm at right now. We talked about it after the Packer game, and as exciting as that was, and most of the Panthers' exciting moments, I mean, don't get me wrong, he's made some nice throws over the course of the season, like against the Dolphins and the Cowboys, some throws stand out.

1:20:46But Bryce Young is not the reason why the Panthers have gotten to five wins at this point in the season. Like it's been the performance of the offensive line, Rico Dowdle being a revelation, the defense being better than expected. Like the year three quarterback is not the spark for this whole thing. And that's it's it's depressing. It sucks because you wanted to believe based on what was going on in the second half of last season. And that just hasn't carried over nearly as consistently. He was so fun to watch. Like the way that he was playing, the way he was approaching the position and the aggressiveness and like just the willingness to push the ball downfield.

1:21:26Like I really liked watching him play the position last year. And so I wasn't sure what the ceiling was like to me. It was about can he be a functional NFL quarterback? And if the circumstances with their offense get better, if they're receiving talent gets better, the offensive line continues to play well. If the defense can play at an average level and we see from him what we saw in the back half of last year, can this be like a frisky, maybe wildcard team? a lot of that other stuff has fallen into place he has not played that way and so it's a I don't take I don't relish landing at this point at this point like I'm it is a bummer and it is kind of depressing that he's just not a viable NFL quarterback as constructed but he just doesn't seem to be one it's almost more frustrating that I think he clearly does like get it like I think he's a smart player he just like physically does not have the same enough to overcome the physical Exactly.

1:22:16It's like to go to what you're saying of like, he can't play the way that he wants to play outside of the pocket. Caleb Williams has a 24 % rate of throws outside of the pocket. Patrick Mahomes is at 21%. Bryce Young is just under that at 20%. And then just under him are Cam Ward and Jackson Dart. Those guys are all just way more talented. They have better arms. Their athleticism is different. It's just Bryce Young doesn't quite have that to him. You just named like the all cannon team when you were listing those guys off. Like if you're going to get out of there, you better whip it, man. I mean, Cam Ward, like you're talking about guys who can throw it through drywall.

1:22:50And that's just not that's just not Bryce. And just the explosiveness to wheel out of those plays. Like I'm just we'll talk about it in a second. I'm just thinking about that play that Caleb makes throwing back across his body to the middle of the field, the Colson level. And like there's like two people in the world that can make that play. But when you look at what that is compared to what Bryce Young is trying to do out of structure, it's just vastly different things. Can I cope? You sure can. You said viable. Like he can be a viable NFL quarterback, just not a starting quarterback, like not a franchise quarterback.

1:23:22He'll have a career. He'll be in the NFL. I don't think he's a franchise quarterback. I'd be thrilled to have Bryce Young on my team and maybe he could win you a game or three if you needed him to. I absolutely think that's the case. And also, by all accounts, he's like a very good person to like have in your life. I'm sure there will be a process of him coming to terms with this when it eventually gets to that point. That's never easy when you're somebody who was a Heisman Trophy winner, the number one pick in the draft. How he deals with that, I think, will go a long way in determining how the rest of his career goes.

1:23:51But by all accounts, he's like a pretty good guy to have around. Absolutely. I'm curious to see, I mean, him, but I mean, the Panthers as well. Obviously, the season's only half over. They're five and five. And what does that look like for Carolina? I mean, we don't have to do it now. And again, I don't know exactly what the finances of it look like. Hello, Marty. I, we wanted, Kyler Murray in a lot of ways is just fully realized Bryce Young. He's Bryce Young with the. With the physical talent that Bryce Young would need to unlock the things he wants to do. But if you're the Panthers We're getting in the weeds here But if you're the Panthers and you decide And we don't know that they've decided this But if you decide Bryce Young's not the guy Are you going to swap out Bryce Young For the other 5 '10 quarterback in the NFL?

1:24:44That would be really funny Don't you want to find a more prototypical player? I know that's easier said than done But do you really just want to trade in My question would be where you're getting that quarterback And is this a draft where you can find a quarterback In the middle of the first round Because that's where you're going to be picking because the rest of your team is competent enough for, like Derek said, the goal for the season should be don't pick in the top 10 anymore. You're probably not picking in the top 10 for Carolina. Don't pick in the top 10, and then they don't, but they need a quarterback.

1:25:11And we're like, no, not like that. You played yourself out of a quarterback. That is the saddest part about this season for the Carolina Panthers, unfortunately, even though so much about what they have been has been very watchable this year. All right, let's talk about some of the moments that made us feel romantic about football on Week 10. I mean, this thing was a thing of beauty. Derek, why don't you kick us off, buddy? What made you feel romantic about football in Week 10? Mine is very simple. One, I love watching Drake London, and I think over the past few weeks he's been incredible. But towards the end of this game, when the Falcons were actually coming back, and they went up a little bit, and they scored a touchdown to go up one, and then they went for the two-point to go up three, Drake London just completely destroys and pushes off Sauce Gardner on this little pylon route to the left-hand side, and he catches it.

1:25:57He turns around. Sauce Gardner's on the ground, because he pushed him down there. And he just mean mugs him for like two seconds. And I was like, a player built like Drake London bullying a guy like Sauce Gardner, who's a little bit thinner, just it's like, that's what bully ball receivers should look like. And I just thought it was perfect. I had a moment today watching the final two drives of that Bears game where it's just really, really wonderful to have the quarterback of your team make a huge play with the game on the line, right? And it's just not something I've really dealt with in my life.

1:26:31Like a guy that you think is even capable of making those plays. And so what made me feel romantic about football in week 10 is the last two drives that Caleb Williams had, right? I mean, the combination and the sequence of like what happened over those final two drives. The play he makes to Colson Loveland on third and 10 on that play where he's wheeling out to the left side of the pocket. Like that's the type of play we expected him to make coming into the NFL. And they haven't been as prevalent as I thought they'd be, to be completely honest. And so watching him make that play out of structure and just go back and just, if you want to watch the all 22 of that, pause it at the moment that ball leaves his hand and what his body is doing in midair.

1:27:11It's just very few human beings that have ever played the sport are capable of that. He has plenty of deficiencies, but he is able to make plays that very few quarterbacks in the history of the league have been able to make. And so that was very fun to watch. On that same drive, he throws, they brought in a dagger to Rome, and he throws it on time. It's a beautiful ball over the middle of the field. He has a 29-yard scramble to set up that first touchdown. And then on the next drive, that ball he throws to Luther Burden down the right sideline. First of all, it's a great route by Luther Burden.

1:27:41It's a little stop and start hitch or come back on the right side. That ball is on him so quickly that it almost surprises Luther Burden as he's catching it coming back around. And then obviously you have the 17-yard scramble for the game winner. And so I actually thought this is not a great game by the Chicago Bears. They probably don't win this game if Jackson Dart doesn't get hurt. I love the juxtaposition that a game that pissed you off as much as this one did also made you feel this romantic about football. Because the quarterback wasn't the problem today. There were so many other things that were a problem today.

1:28:11They dropped the ball all over the place. I don't think it was a good game for Ben Johnson. The run game wasn't very good. And so for Caleb to be the one that actually kind of pulled this thing out of the fire and one of the reasons that they won the game, that just hasn't happened to me very often. And so that gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling that I am not used to. Such a quintessential Bears game. Like there's snow flurries on the screen. Ugly freaking game for the vast majority of this. Like how many, how many fourth down attempts were there? I mean, combined. Yes. Eight. Oh my gosh. Two conversions.

1:28:44Two of eight on fourth down. Just disgusting football. But when you have a good quarterback at the end, it all feels a lot better when it's over. he just he is undeniably talented and I just think watching him kind of channel that in some big moments is enjoyable when he turns the corner on some of those scrambles or like just I mean that last one is a boot like he's he's just and decides to run with it when he starts to like go upfield and take the corner he just has a little bit of like his like top end speed isn't as impressive as like Lamar but like that when he's turning the corner and hitting a gear it's as impressive as anyone it's almost like it's it I don't even want to make this comparison I actually do think he's faster than this person, but it's kind of Mahomesian in the way that, like, he's just faster than the guy chasing him.

1:29:26Yeah, like, he's just consistently faster than the guy chasing him. He never, he doesn't look that fast until he's passing the person that's trying to tackle him. Yeah. So, again, there's a long way to go for this team. It is very uneven. The offense, or the defense, just continues to be maddening. I actually was really impressed with the way that Jackson Dart played for a good chunk of this game. Like, the way he was playing on time, some of the throws that he was making. so it's not a perfect game by any stretch and it's a game they probably should have lost but for it to end the way that it did that made me feel romantic about football today it was an incompletion and he did this in the monday night game against the vikings too same thing but for my money when caleb breaks out and just torques his whole body into a throw on the run it's about as exciting a thing as happens in football it very rarely turns out well unfortunately at this point.

1:30:14I don't care. It's fun to watch. From a pure adrenaline standpoint, he did it against the Vikings on Monday night and then today it was incomplete in the end zone to DJ Moore, but like the velocity he can put on the ball in that situation is breathtaking. It's amazing. Yeah, you'd hope that, again, the talent can be pointed in the right direction more often than it has been over the last couple years, but today was a very fun day. Dave, what made you feel romantic about football in week 10? Kind of funny, Derek and I both went to the Berlin game, but I think it was like the most entertaining game of the day and like the most well-played game probably i love i love when a team takes somebody's soul and that's what the colts did on their overtime drive uh it was just the seven play sequence was phenomenal and obviously you lean heavy on jonathan taylor you start the drive with him and then daniel jones for all of his flaws on sunday made one of the best throws of his day like the deep corner to tyler warren just fits it in perfectly into a window between three guys.

1:31:11So from there, you're at the 33 yard line and they just run the ball five times in a row. And every single snap, you can see the Falcons resolve, get a little bit less like the first play. Billy Bowman shoots his gap. He's got JT dead to rights in the backfield. It's going to be a TFL. You're going to bump them to a long field goal range. Badgley has been struggling and it's like, Oh, all right. Like the Falcons might get the ball back, except JT just makes him look goofy and turns that into a seven yard run and like you can see the life force kind of ebb out of the falcons and from there it's like a two yard run and then he get and then they go back to him it's a six yard run the tight ends are getting involved they move tyler warren into the backfield like exclusively for the final three snaps where he's just running in front of jonathan taylor jesse bates is in hell trying to deal with jonathan taylor on the second level just every single time and then you finally get down there what on the eight yard line and not gonna suggest anybody gave up but I just at that point you you know you're in easy field goal range like the Falcons know the game is up and Jonathan Taylor just waltzes into the end zone and like go back and watch the sequence like on every snap you just see the energy on the Falcon side of the line of scrimmage just go down a little bit and like to to finish it in that manner with the way that Jonathan, the day that he had to win the game that way, that's beautiful stuff.

1:32:36JT knows that we're doing our midseason awards this week. He knew that we were waiting a week compared to some other shows. He wanted like one more entry into his offensive player of the year. He made a hell of an impression. Alright, let's talk about what we learned in week 10 before we get out of here. You know, I think I've learned something today. I think at times when you are in our position doing this job and you look at fan bases around the league, and you see how they respond to good or bad performances from their young quarterbacks, I think there's an inclination to be like, guys, just take a breath.

1:33:11Everybody just like slow down for a second, both good and bad. Not every single game means that this guy is the greatest player of all time. And not every single game means that this guy is a lost cause. But this week specifically, I think was a reminder of why it feels like the stakes are so high in those moments and in those conversations. When you look at what the Patriots have been, because Drake May is what he is, and you compare that to what it must have felt like to be a Patriots fan over the last four or five years, it's not some long stretch of encompass, but there have been some low moments for that team in the last four or five years.

1:33:47And when you find that guy and it just completely changes the entire DNA of what you feel like as an organization, and you compare that to some of the other second year quarterbacks that have not played that way this year. Like, can you watch what Michael Penix has been? And you think about how uneven and how almost like rudderless the Falcons have felt over the course of this season. You do realize that that is why that fan base has become hyper fixated on what these guys can be, because at the end of the day, the reward really is as big as you want it to be. And I think this week specifically, and you compare that Falcons game to what the Patriots now feel like that was just kind of crystallized for me when watching this slate.

1:34:29It is, it's easy for us as, you know, people on the macro level who for the most part aren't invested in these teams. Obviously you're a Bears fan, but for the most part, we're looking at this thing from 30 ,000 feet and it's understandable to want people to take a chill pill, but it's kind of, it's kind of breathtaking when you consider the implications and you see what Drake May did against the Bills a few weeks ago and even in what we consider a shaky performance, the way that he was able to stabilize things for the Patriots. I get why the discourse around Bo Nix and JJ McCarthy is as toxic as it is because like every glimpse, every glimpse of that talent, every time it pays off or looks like it's going to pay off.

1:35:16how could you not think about well you know what if this is the next Mahomes or the next Josh Allen and every time it doesn't you're think of the conversation we just had about Bryce Young and what might be in front of the Carolina Panthers that is equally terrifying and so when you're invested in it it makes sense even if it does get exhausting uh and yeah I think it's it's easy for us to take that for granted sometimes I'll say right now and you guys have never watched games with me before this season consistently. The way that I watch Bears games right now is different than it has been over the last several years.

1:35:51I never really bought into the idea. Pretty quickly, I was skeptical of whether Justin Fields would ever be that guy. I just, when you watch the timing that he played with, just mechanically what he was as a quarterback, I always had my doubts. You're going to attest to this. I still believe that Caleb Williams could be something. And when you have that in the back of your mind, it changes your relationship with what these games are in the moment. And I can feel it. I can feel it in how invested I am watching this. Like that kernel of hope changes your relationship to what this is. And so I like to think that I'm immune to some of this stuff because of the way that my relationship with the sport and my distance from it at times, but I'm not.

1:36:33Like it is a powerful, powerful drug when that guy is even the glimpse of an idea that could work out for you. And that's why it ends up so volatile is you have to take those kernels of hope. But then everyone that has a young quarterback knows that deep down, like 60 to 70 percent of first round quarterbacks just like won't be on the team in five years. Like they're just not going to be good enough. And we all, everyone knows that. But when it's your guy, you just don't believe it until it's too late. It's, I blew my own mind just thinking about the implications of all of it. and y 'all can have a fun conversation about the game that JJ McCarthy had against the Ravens today, but who knows?

1:37:12Maybe he'll have a rabbit in his hat next week, and the whole cycle just keeps on perpetuating itself. We got a fun hangover coming tomorrow. We got Ravens-Vikings. We've got some Jets-Browns, which is the most hangover game of all time, and then we will chat about the Sunday night game. We will also be back here tomorrow night recapping the Monday night game live from the studio for the first time, So if you guys have not checked out the Monday night and Thursday night recaps, I would highly encourage you to get on that tomorrow because it's a big game. We're very excited about it. One other bit of housekeeping.

1:37:46Tickets for our live show at Lincoln Hall in Chicago on January 7th go on sale tomorrow morning on Monday. So please be on the lookout for that. Very excited about it. 250 seats in the venue. So if you want to come, encourage you to jump on that quickly. For now, that is all we've got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon.